


Safe Haven

by Sunja



Series: Benefits [2]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Rape Aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 09:14:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21297062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunja/pseuds/Sunja
Summary: Hal has had a bad run in with Sinestro on a mission and he is not okay. Slade decides to drop in.
Relationships: Hal Jordan/Slade Wilson
Series: Benefits [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1535225
Comments: 10
Kudos: 47





	Safe Haven

Hal is not okay. At least he’s self aware enough to know that. He knows he has a tendency of pushing down bad emotions and just fake his usually cheery personality until he feels better - fake it til you make it - but this time, he knows that’s just not going to cut it. Fuck. 

He lands on the roof of his apartment building and it takes him almost five minutes to find the confidence to dissolve his uniform. It makes him feel safer, to have the green surround him. It’s calming. It makes him feel less helpless. 

But he can’t go down as Green Lantern. He needs to be Hal Jordan. He can do this. He’s gotta, eventually. Hal shudders as the uniform vanishes and is replaced by his jeans and bomber jacket. Breathe. He needs to breathe. 

His hands are shaking as he unlocks his apartment and he leans against the closed door for a moment once he’s inside. He locks the door and goes around the apartment, checking that all the windows are closed. It doesn’t make him feel any safer, not really. He shouldn’t be alone right now, he knows this. Objectively. But he also can’t bring himself to go out there again tonight. He should call somebody to come over. Barry would be the obvious call. Hal picks up the phone and taps on the contact. But his finger hovers over the call button and somehow he can’t bring himself to push down. 

Barry is most likely on a date with Iris right now. Got to be, it’s their anniversary. Hal doesn’t want to ruin that with his breakdown. He knows Barry wouldn’t mind, Barry would be here in minutes ready to console. But Hal can’t have someone fuzzing right now. 

God his hands are still shaking. Hal balls his hands into fists. Shit. Why can’t he just be fine. He’s not hurt, at least not badly. He got hit with a few shots and got slammed into a building once. But the ring protected him, mostly. Then there was the punch in the face, but even that is just a black eye. Nothing that fazes him, at least not usually. But then there is also the soreness in his backside and shit, Hal drags in a lung full of air and holds it, before the panic can really take hold. It’s over. He’s home. He’s safe. 

Sinestro is half a galaxy away. He can’t hurt him right now. 

Get it together, Jordan.

Hal mechanically goes through the motions and makes himself a cup of tea. It’s too quiet. Sinestro’s triumphant chuckle echoes in the silence of his apartment. Fuck. He needs to take his mind of things. He only needs to be okay for tonight. Tomorrow, he will fly to Star City and talk to Dinah. She’s a psychologist, she’ll know how to help. And she’ll never tell, not even Ollie. 

But tonight, tonight he has to be fine on his own. 

Hal takes his cup of tea and sits down on his couch. He turns on the TV. The voices are soothing. 

His phone buzzes, startling him. Hal almost spills his tea all over himself, but manages to steady his hands. He puts down the cup and reaches for his phone. He really doesn’t want to deal with the League right now. 

But it’s not Bruce or Clark that’s messaged him. 

_I’m in town. Want to have some fun?_

It’s Slade. Hal makes a noise that is somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Shit, he’s so far from okay. 

_It’s really not a good time. But thanks for the offer._

He hits send. He realizes moments later that it’s the first time he’s actually turned Slade down. Not that their hookups have happened that often, but Hal has always happily accepted the opportunity to get deliciously dicked down before now. 

The dots that indicate typing stay there for a while, before eventually:

_You okay?_

So Slade noticed too. Hal knows that Slade doesn’t really care. He’s hooked up with him often enough to know that Slade sees him only as a fun booty call every now and then, no strings attached, and that if they were ever in a real fight he would kick Hal’s ass without hesitation. They’re not friends. Slade probably just wants to know if their arrangement has come to a sudden end because someone found out or because Hal decided it isn’t worth the risk anymore. The fact is that Bruce found out some months ago and had only said a single sentence to Hal about it, out of nowhere when they had monitor duty on the watchtower together. “I don’t care who you fuck Lantern, but make sure you don’t forget that Wilson isn’t one of the good guys.” Hal had smiled deceptively sweet. “Aww Bats, how nice of you to worry!”

Seemed like a long time ago now. 

Hal stared at the text for a few moments later. Slade wouldn’t care. And Hal definitely wanted to continue their arrangement. Eventually. Once he had talked to Dinah and felt more like himself again. Once he stopped feeling Sinestro’s breath down his neck. 

_No._

Hal drops the phone onto the sofa screen down and switches it on silent. He takes a sip of his tea, then he curls up on the couch and tries to think of nice things.   
He should take a shower and put some salve on his bruises, but he knows that there are hand sized bruises on his hips and he just knows that when he sees them he’s going to break down. So he’ll just try to sleep for now. He can still shower tomorrow at Dinah’s and Ollie’s place, he knows they won’t mind. 

So. Nice memories. 

There was that one time he and Barry went out for dinner. One lady had thought they were a couple. The look on Barry’s face had been hilarious. Hal had found it mildly amusing, but Barry, the tragically straight guy he was, had been a bit taken aback. 

Then there was that time he had been camping with Ollie and Dinah. He had worried about being a third wheel beforehand, but the two had been perfectly welcoming. No sex had been had on that camping trip, which in hindsight seemed like a shame, but it had made Hal feel more included. Dinah had insisted he conjure a guitar and then he had played and she had sang and Ollie had just listened with the stars and campfire reflecting in his eyes. 

They had told stories, Dinah had talked of a time she’d been out with Selina and Helena, Ollie had told a funny story when he’d met Bruce Wayne before he’d known he was Batman and Hal had talked about his Lantern training, going drinking with Kilowog and Sinestro’s disapproving stare the next morning…

No. 

He can’t think of Sinestro. Remember that time when Ollie had… But there was the image of Sinestro towering over him and Hal had thrown constructs at him, but Sinestro had the fear of the whole planet behind him and Hal’s willpower had only lasted so long against all that fear and pain, especially when Sinestro had started touching and he had also become afraid, afraid of…

A knocking shocks him from his dark thoughts. Immediately the green wraps around him protectively. Who the fuck is that?

“Who’s there?”, Hal shouts. His voice is clearer than he had thought, but it’s shaking slightly. 

“It’s Slade.”, comes the answer. Quiet, but clearly audible. 

What the fuck. Why is Slade here?

“I said it’s not a good time.”, Hal shouts back. 

“Not here for sex.” A slight pause. “Check your phone.”

Hal picks up his phone a message blinks there, sent half an hour ago, a few minutes after he last texted Slade._ I’m coming over._

Hal doesn’t know if he’s really comforted by Slade technically having warned him. He doesn’t really want to let the mercenary in, doesn’t want him to see him like this. Bruce’s warning comes back into his mind. Slade really isn’t trustworthy. But the mercenary has never tried to use him for anything besides sex they had both agreed to. He had never even asked about League business, his life or other heroes, the same way Hal had never asked Slade about his employers or jobs. 

Hal doesn’t get up from the couch, but he makes a construct to turn the key and open the door. “Lock it behind you.”, he says and dissolves his uniform again. 

He picks up his cup of tea, but it’s cold. Hal scoots into one corner of the couch and pulls his knees to his chest. 

Slade enters the living room. He’s in civvies: jeans and a linen shirt that stretches nicely around his shoulders and biceps. The joking question if Slade can rip the shirt by flexing is on the tip of Hal’s tongue, but his humor falls flat. 

“So what happened?”, Slade asks as he sits down on the other side of the sofa, propping his feet up on the coffee table and glancing at the TV screen. “You don’t look all that injured.”

Hal’s laugh sounds bitter and a little desperate, even to his own ears. He scrubs his hands over his face wiping away tears before they can fall. “Fuck.”, he mutters. 

“Hey.”, Slade is studying him, obviously trying to figure out what’s wrong. Hal looks over at him. Why did he let him in? Hal is so stupid. He’s way to freaked out right now to make solid constructs for longer times, he’s barely put together enough to fly. Why did he let Slade in? The guy is dangerous, even without his armor or weapons. 

Slade can clearly see his rising panic as he lifts both hands soothingly. “Hey, I’m not here for anything except to check on you. If you want me to leave I will. You should know me enough by now to know that I won’t do anything you don’t want me too. But you seem pretty out of it and I don’t think you should be alone.”

Hal doesn’t know how to answer. It’s true, if it were somebody else in his situation, he absolutely wouldn’t want them to be alone with their thoughts, he would encourage them to talk to somebody. 

“You can stay.”, he pushes out eventually. 

Slade nods and settles back down on the couch, pulls out his phone and starts scrolling. He glances at Hal or the TV from time to time, but mostly he just doesn’t do anything. He’s just there. Somehow, that’s comforting. 

An hour passes before anybody says anything. It’s Hal who breaks the silence. He’s spent the hour wondering if he wants to talk to Slade about what happened. He’s going to talk to Dinah anyway. But eventually, he breaks. 

“I’m going to talk to a friend tomorrow.”, he begins. Slade looks up from his phone, sets it down in his lap. “Good idea.”

Hal is silent for a little while longer. “Have you ever heard of Sinestro?”, he then asks begrudgingly. He should just keep his mouth shut. But he knows Slade will pick up on what he wants to say without him having to say it. Dinah will make him spell it out for therapeutic purposes. Call this a test run. 

Slade nods. “Alien, looks like a devil, his constructs are yellow. He’s a regular enemy of yours?”

Hal nods. “Didn’t start out that way. He was a Green Lantern, but he betrayed the Corps and now he leads the Sinestro Corps. Their power comes from fear. Green Lanterns want peace and justice, the Sinestro Corps wants order and control. Rule through oppression and fear.”

Slade nods. Hal gathers himself before continuing.

“He trained me when I became a Green Lantern, so when we fought it’s always been somewhat personal. He always wanted me to join him. A few weeks ago he and his people took control of a planet. Some Lanterns and I went to fight them and liberate the planet, but the fear of a whole planet made Sinestro and his people pretty powerful. I fought him because I know that he won’t kill me, but I lost.”

“So what did he do?”, Slade asks after a while. 

Hal can’t say it. But that’s what rings are for after all. The ring records what happens to its wearer. So Hal lifts his hand and lets the ring replay a hologram. The images are silent, but Hal’s mind fill in the sounds and what was said quite well. 

The recordings starts with Hal falling to the ground and Sinestro landing beside him. It shows Hal throwing a last ditch attack before his constructs are shattered under the sheer power of Sinestro’s. His ring is pulled from his finger. Sinestro wraps a hand around his throat and whispers something in his ear (“If you wont join me, I suppose I will have you in another way.” ) while his other hand wanders south. It’s at this point that Hal in the hologram catches on and starts fighting back, tries to kick Sinestro away, but he gets punched in the face before a construct wraps around his neck and wrists pulling him a few feet away, then flipping him over on his knees and bending him over a piece of rubble. The hologram Hal struggles but is ultimately helpless while hologram Sinestro walks over with a grin. 

Hal cuts of the recording and the hologram vanishes. 

Hal glances over at Slade. Slade’s face is stony, Hal can tell he’s furious. Even though Hal knows its not directed at him, he cowers a little. Slade notices of course. “If that bastard ever sets foot on Earth in my presence, he’s going to have a rude awakening.”

Hal chuckles. He’d love to see that. But it’s unlikely to happen, unfortunately. “Yeah, Sinestro usually sticks to space. He knows Earth is too well protected. But eventually I’m going to have to go back out there. And I’ll run into him again.”

Hal shivers at the thought. He can imagine it. If he’s alone, he’ll probably freeze and Sinestro would have an easy job beating him down again. And if he has back-up, Sinestro will use what happened to humiliate him. Hal knows none of the Lanterns will think any less of him, but it’s still going to be humiliating and awkward. He needs to tell them before they meet Sinestro again, but right now he can’t even begin to imagine how to do that. It’ll be hard enough to tell Dinah. 

“Hal.”

Hal looks up at Slade. 

“Don’t worry about that right now. It’ll be some time until you see him again. By then you’ll be better. You’ll kick his ass.” Slade sounds so sure. Hal knows that Slade can’t be as sure as he sounds, but it still makes him feel better. 

“I hope you’re right.”, he answers. 

Slade pauses for a moment, pondering. Then he pulls something out his pocket. It takes Hal a moment, but eventually he recognizes it as a jackknife. Slade flicks out the blade, then pushes it back in. Then he sets the handle down on the coffee table. 

“Keep it. Next time your ring runs out of power, you can still stick a knife in him. Bet he won’t see that coming.”

Hal stares dumbfounded for a moment. This is so far from what Dinah or any of the League would call a healthy solution. It’s such a Slade thing to do. But it might work. Hal has never carried any weapons that weren’t his ring. It would certainly be a surprise and if Sinestro doesn’t notice the knife Hal could manage to stab him before his ring catches on and protects him. 

Hal picks up the knife and turns it in his hands. He finds the button for the mechanism and flicks out the blade. It’s shiney and undoubtedly sharp, slender but dangerous looking. Hal pushes the blade back and tucks the knife into his pocket. 

“Thanks.” He looks at Slade who is just studying him. “Feel safer yet?”

Hal nods. “A little.” He’s started to calm down and now he’s starting to feel tired and worn out. The blade is a steadying weight in his pocket and Slade a comforting presence on the other side of the sofa. And that’s a funny thought if Hal’s ever had one. Finding comfort and security in the world’s most dangerous mercenary. But Hal is too worn out to care. 

He scoots over and snuggles up against Slade’s muscled chest. He rests his head against Slade’s shoulder and one of Slade’s hands comes up and starts lightly stroking through his hair. It’s nice. 

“Stay.”, Hal asks quietly. 

“Sure.”


End file.
